1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to credit systems and credit issuer/consumer relationships, and in particular, to a method and system for engaging in a transaction between a consumer and a merchant, offering credit at a point-of-sale and identifying at least one optimal credit product of a credit issuer for a consumer and offering the optimal product to the consumer for consideration.
2. Description of the Related Art
According to the prior art, when a consumer wishes to obtain a credit product, such as a credit card or credit account, from a credit issuer, such as a bank, the consumer fills out an application, whether in hard copy of electronic form, and submits this application to the credit issuer. Once the appropriate information is received from the consumer, the credit issuer will make a decision regarding whether the applicant is eligible for credit product. If the person is, indeed, eligible, and meets the necessary requirements, the credit issuer establishes and account and provides the consumer with either the appropriate account information, or in most cases, a physical credit card for use in engaging in transactions. In addition, in order to successfully consummate the transaction, the consumer must have some preexisting relationship with some credit provider in order to facilitate any non-cash transaction, e.g., an online transaction, a telephone transaction, etc. Therefore, in order to engage in some non-cash purchase, the consumer must obtain credit, initiate the transaction with the merchant, and utilize the obtained credit product to consummate the transaction and receive the goods and/or services. Therefore, there is a need for some payment option in a non-cash transaction that does not require a preexisting credit relationship.
In some situations, the consumer applies for a credit level or credit product type for which he or she is not eligible. For example, the consumer may apply for a “gold” credit card from the credit issuer, but is only eligible for the “silver” credit card. Accordingly, the credit issuer will issue a notification to the applicant that he or she is unfortunately not eligible for the “gold” card, but is for the “silver” card. Such an offer from the credit issuer is often referred to as a “down sell”. However, presently, this “down sell” is only used in connection with a single type of card and/or in connection with a single and discrete credit issuer. Therefore, the “down sell” represents only a downward qualification, which would be preferable to outright denial of the applicant, since the issuer is attempting to maximize sales and profit.
The “down sell” is fairly common, but extremely limited, i.e., limited to one issuer, limited to one type of card, etc. However, the credit issuer may have a number of different goals and objectives with respect to new or upgrading applicants. For example, the credit issuer may wish to control transactional costs, maximize sales, control risk, maximize long-term sales, maximize short-term sales, encourage co-branded products, etc. There are presently no methods and systems that take specific credit issuer (or affiliated merchant) objectives into account when offering credit products to the consumer, whether in a “down sell” or “up sell” situation.
There are many available credit products offerings to which a consumer may respond. However, the consumer may also have certain goals and objectives when searching for the optimal credit product, e.g., low interest rate, high loan level, minimal penalties, special advantages and perks, etc. Further, the consumer often would like to consider a variety of credit issuers, as well as a variety of credit products for each credit issuer. Therefore, there is a need for a method and system that would take the consumer's objectives into account, and provide the consumer with the optimal credit product (or appropriate products).